Shield of Innocence (Alternate Places Book 4) (23 page)

"I get the idea. Can you
cross reality lines?" He didn't know how to explain the concept to her,
but there was a rapid shake of the dirty head next to him.

"Fuck no. The Swarm can, I
hear, but that's new. No one has gotten at that data yet. Are you saying you
can?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm not
from here. I'll try to get back to you, about once a month then? Not in a fight
next time? If I can help it."

"Great plan. If you get out
of here alive. Go! I don't have time to chat right now. Rendezvous in a month.
Thirty days."

Zack got up and ran to the
nearest shortcut, which meant walking for a long time, sometimes running and
hiding, to find a node. The Swarm, whatever it was, was all over the place.
Most of it seemed like machines, or robots, but there was clearly something
inside at least a portion of them. To be honest, they looked like arch-demons,
to him. One of them managed to shoot him with a large caliber bullet, just as he
got to the node, vaporizing his head.

It should have killed him, but he
was in the node space when it happened, and was able to rebuild himself as he
transferred through the void.

On the good side he was done with
his deliveries for the time being. That last one had been insanely intense, but
like with Jelly earlier, his fault. Zack really needed to get better at looking
before he went places. It was, he realized, trying to catch his breath, the
kind of thing that his brain didn't really want to understand. The world that
Glenda existed in was so dark, and different, compared to his own that his mind
didn't want to admit he'd been there.

He had however. Now he had points
of contact, too. A small group of people, who, in potential, might be willing
to help him in his fight to save reality. It was an odd group really, now that
he stopped to consider it. That tall man had seemed strange, and so far away
that he might not be able to help anyone.

The others all seemed to have
their own lives going on, but Riley had him take those letters in for a reason.
Now he just had to hope that it was about a thing that might, in some manner,
help them all. If not, well, there wasn't a lot that could be done about it.
For the first time in a while, Zack was left with a feeling that he wasn't
truly in control of what he did in life. More than that, he couldn't see any
way out of the stream he was in. The world flowed around him, and Zack was a
log, inside it.

All he could do was hope for the
best, and try not to be stuck on the rocks for too long.

That wasn't reality however. He
had choices to make, and even if
all
choices had to be made, somewhere,
in all variations, his were still the ones that influenced the reality he was
in. It made the concept of free will a little bit sketchy, but it probably
didn't really matter. Either he had a choice in how things came out, and so did
the others, or they didn't, and they'd do whatever they had to anyway.

 For him, it was going to have to
be enough, Zack decided.

Then, because he could, he walked
away, and just went home.

In the end, Zack decided that
showering was the best plan. The idea of letting a curtain of water hit him,
gently massaging, was better than anything else he could think of that wouldn't
need help, at the moment. It was just about six in the morning, and he had a
few hours before he needed to get off to work. While he soaped his hair, and
stood under the warm flow of water, someone walked in on him. Even with his
eyes closed, he could see that it was Libby. Her inner bat flipped and flapped
at him, which was entertaining.

He rinsed his hair as she came
into the shower itself.

"Hey! I haven't seen you in
a week, practically." Her voice was chipper, and her hand moved over his
chest, the water making the movement feel smooth and sensuous. Leaning forward
she ducked her head under the flow of of falling wetness. "You haven't
been avoiding me, have you? I mean, sure, we spent all that time in the void
together, but it doesn't
really
count, you know?"

Zack finished rinsing, and
sighed.

"I didn't realize I was gone
that long. It felt like a few hours to me. That probably means that time was
running differently in some of the alternate realities I was in." That
meant he had to explain, Libby washing herself as he did, then doing his back
for him. He returned the favor as he spoke, scrubbing her gently. She was
small, but also dense, as far as her musculature. She had slightly better
definition than he did, even though he wasn't doing that badly anymore.

At some point he'd managed to
build a little bit more muscle than he used to have. Not that there was a good
reason as to why that would be. He stayed busy, but there wasn't a lot of
weight lifting involved or anything. He used to do that, but now, lately... Not
so much.

Turning into him, Libby nodded,
taking him in her hand, working until he started to get hard.

"That sounds... Wild,
actually. They were all you?" The question there was a good one, but had
already been answered.

Zack just smiled then.

"I guess? I mean,
really
different versions. I guess it would be more accurate to say that we fill the
same niche, for our realities? I don't know that it really matters, but that
girl, Bridget? She really did look like Merry. Only she didn't, at the same
time. Taller, for one thing. Like, four-six, so practically a giant version."

They didn't speak for a while
then, Libby distracting him by doing some very entertaining things that they
technically weren't supposed to. There had been a rather major issue a few
months before, due to Zack having addicted most of the women in his life to
pleasure. He hadn't really intended it to be that way, but it had happened, and
he'd known that it was going on. He felt bad about it now, though distant from
it at the same time. It was a thing he'd done, and recalled now, but it also
felt like it had taken place thousands of years before.

Which was due to that just being
a fact.

It made sense to him, having
lived it all, but Zack knew that almost no one else would really understand the
concept. He'd lived for a long time, and while some of the others had as well,
none of them had been around even half as long as he had now. Not even a
hundredth of the time.

It left him feeling detached from
the reality around him. A thing that took part of the color and
life
,
away from it. Even as he experienced his time with Libby, his friend, there was
a detachment between them. She cuddled damply to his chest, and he went through
all the right moves, holding her closely, burying his face into the top of her
head. Zack wanted to be close to her, but it just didn't seem possible now.
He'd lived too long for that.

As they got out, she looked up at
him, and smiled. It was a warm and loving thing. Much better than what he'd
been managing, though it probably looked close to the same. Even his shadow was
trying to make it happen. Not lying, but expressing a portion of himself more
strongly than he really felt.

For a moment he wondered if Libby
was doing the same thing.

They dressed efficiently, with
Libby smiling nearly the whole time. She got into some rather plain seeming
clothing, for her. A nice blouse, but it was just a light blue thing, and black
slacks. He was in a silk shirt, which was new, but purple, and had suspenders,
which were just plain black that day. It wasn't normal for him, but they'd been
in the closet, so he put them on. They kept his own black slacks up well
enough. His gold toe socks were comfortable, and slipped into his dress shoes
smoothly. Claire had gotten them for him, he thought. At least it seemed like
the kind of thing that she would do. They'd just showed up one day in his room,
about a month before.

Looking at Libby, he winked.

"You look nice.
Different." She normally either dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, or
business wear. This was professional, but dressier.

The Bat-girl nodded at him, her
face considering.

"Yeah." Then she looked
away, and shook her head for a bit before turning back to lock eyes with him.
"I have a meeting, with the Shifter leadership today. Someone told them that
there was a shifter line walker, and that it was
me
, so now they're
freaking out a bit. After nearly getting me killed like they did... Well, I
don't want to be petty. I mean, I get it. I sold you out to evil vampires. I
kind of wanted to die, too, but not really, you know? I'm tempted to tell them
to go fuck themselves."

It was a thing that Zack could
understand. Once upon a time having Libby Paterson as a line walker would have
meant a lot of free travel between different lands for her people. That
could
have meant billions of dollars of effort for free. Then they'd put an open
ended hit order out for her, which had resulted in her being set on fire. She'd
healed from it, sure, Zack and Claire getting there in time to kill the
assassins, but it had been very close.

So he nodded at her.

"Right. Well, I'll back
whatever you decide to do. Always." At least in that kind of thing. Libby
understood that.

She still seemed surprised, which
showed on her face, her eyes going a little bit wide.

"Yeah? But... I mean,
shouldn't I take the high road?"

Zack shrugged, not caring at the
moment if it was a bad habit.

"Sure? We always should do
our best that way. That doesn't mean you have to work with people that tried to
kill you. Not all of them were part of that, but... Well, the people that
you're talking to today,
did
. I can see you not thinking all that highly
of them."

She hugged him, smelling of soap
and water still. It was a fresh thing, but mild. A lot of Shifters didn't wear
perfume or anything like that. Too many of their people had keen noses, and
would be left feeling ill if they were hit with anything too strong.

She patted his arm, and left,
leaving him to get ready. That meant combing his hair, which was still short
and dark, and making sure he didn't have any hair coming out of his nose. Which
he didn't. It was still really early, but when he walked out for breakfast,
Libby was already gone. The Shifters were kind of military that way, Zack
thought. Plus their headquarters were in a different time zone, an hour ahead.

Merry was still there, needing to
be taken to work after a bit, and the kitchen table, where he normally ate with
Hilda in the mornings, was loaded with toast, oatmeal, and butter. Over by
where the large woman would be seated was a plate of fried bacon, and about a
half dozen cooked eggs. Also, today, a seat for Troy. That part was interesting
and different, but it was there. Charli came in when they did, but didn't eat
anything.

Instead she made a cute face and
shook her head.

"How can you people eat in
the morning? I always feel sick if I do. It's probably low blood sugar."

Merry moved quickly, settling the
food in the correct places, though Zack noticed that Troy got a bowl of oatmeal,
too. There was no sugar on it, but it was very well spiced.

He noticed that Troy didn't look
at the tiny red head, though he smiled.

"Hey, thanks. I'm normally
asleep now. Holding down three jobs is getting to be a bit much." There
was no talk of him quitting one of them, Zack noticed. Not until Claire got into
the room.

She faked a sigh, and sat down
next to Zack, close enough that her left leg brushed his. She was in a skirt
that day, which was a bit heavier than what she normally wore to man her
embassy.

"Well, if
I
get a
say, I think that having you at the shop several times a week is more valuable
than at the dance club. We can hire another bar manager, after all. It's harder
to get good daytime help that can also line walk. Evenings? That way you can
continue on at Lesser Shia, as their primary person?"

They chatted about the idea, but
Zack just ate, not really being able to care that much about the little things.
He smiled and nodded at the right times however, and when he finished took his
bowl to the sink, and rinsed it. Merry grabbed it, like it was a snake that was
about to bite him, and looked scandalized by his actions.

She didn't say anything about it.
Instead she ran to grab the dishes from the others as they finished. Almost
panicked seeming. About Zack having accidently done her job for her. Washing
the dishes. Because that
might
have been him saying that Merry wasn't
needed anymore. Rather than him trying to make her day a bit easier.

It was an Elth thing, and the
correct response was, difficultly enough, to say nothing about it, as if it
weren't an issue for him. It wasn't really, but apologizing would make her feel
worse. Like she was being demanding and trying to control him by being needy.

So he hugged her instead, when
she was done. That seemed to work all right, her inner self being mollified,
and understanding that he was just being absent minded and had done that
horrible thing, rinsing his bowl, by mistake.

He smiled at the thought, and
patted her back a little bit.

"Shall we get everyone off
to where they need to go?"

That day it was vastly easier
than it had been before. Charli helped Claire through the shortcut, and Troy
did Hilda. So instead of making six trips, Zack just made the one with Merry,
into the back of Something Wonderful. It was still a bit of a mess in the large
back room, the work tables filled with wicker baskets, bottles of wine, jams,
jellies, cheeses and a few stacks of things from Lesser Shia. Those weren't all
recognizable to Zack.

It was early still, but Troy was
off to Lesser Shia directly, and Charli had baskets to make up. Hilda had an
early client coming at the power lifting gym, which wasn't that unusual for
her, since people worked out before work a lot. Claire had her day planned out,
which meant she could use the extra time for cleaning, and making sure her shop
was taken care of.

"Luthor is set to call at
nine. I need to get off for the day then." She leaned in and kissed Zack
on the lips, her own being cool and dry. Charli moved to let them out into the
front of the mall, so they could walk to their shops.

Merry smiled at them all, and
looked at Zack.

"I'll have your meal at
eleven?" She didn't wait for him to tell her yes or no, just assuming that
her husband needed to eat, so would be around. That was a bit early, but it was
the busy season, and the food court might even have people in it at noon now.
Probably not, but it could happen, so Zack went for his food early.

Candles and More didn't need to
open up until nine, so nothing was scheduled for him until after that. He
smiled anyway, and started to clean and tidy things up. The place wasn't
horrible
,
but he'd been neglecting it for a while, being busy. That wasn't a great excuse
not to keep on top of things however.

So the candles were all dusted
and faced, and so where the other items, including the rack of horrible shirts
in white, red, and black. They all said "I heart Hartley" on them,
and made him wonder who'd come up with that horrible phrase. It was almost
certainly someone that he'd never met.

If he had, then he was going to
give them a crummy Christmas present that year.
Jam
. He'd give them a
jelly of the month club membership, but would make sure to get the cheap one,
so they'd get apple jelly three times in twelve months.
That
would show
them.

Smiling he opened the door and
made certain all of the lights were on. Lisa wasn't in yet, but that wasn't too
odd.

The store opened at nine, as a
rule, but Lisa Penbroke rarely did mornings well. That meant that rolling in at
about ten or so wasn't that uncommon for her. Most days she didn't even try to
book things until about then.

Still, that day a large group of
people, all looking rather square and blocky, being both short and wide, pushed
into the place at about nine-thirty. That wouldn't normally have been a big
deal, but there were nearly three hundred of them. The store wasn't nearly big
enough to hold them all comfortably.